April 14, 2011

Renan Ozturk and his Camp 4 Collective is turning adventure film making on its head. You see, Renan is supposed to be in front of the camera instead of in back of it. Well, that's not exactly right. He's acutually gone all quantum mechanics on us and is in two places at once. Both in front of the camera and in back of it.

As technology makes the equipment to produce media the lines between the subject and the writer (in this case the filmmaker) have blurred.

Now the story is captured as it happens. And, it's much more interesting.

August 21, 2007

Lately, we've been thinking about the evolution of storytelling in both advertising and product design. Certainly, the power of storytelling does a great job of connecting brands and people but it seems that the paradigm of storytelling is changing to one of gaming. Instead of the one-way conversation between storyteller and audience, gaming demands that both participate in an ongoing dialogue. If the audience stops participating the game is over. Mountain Dew seems to understand this shift with its new Game Fuel.

Compelling stories are explored every day on "This American Life," the nearly 15-year-old, award-winning Chicago Public Radio show that boasts a devoted weekly listening audience of 1.7 million, and is heard on more than 500 stations nationally. The series, created in 1995 by host and executive producer Ira Glass, pioneered a unique way of telling stories on the radio. Its first-person telling of these revealing stories makes the radio series a great fit for television.

In the same spirit of the radio show, the televised version of THIS AMERICAN LIFE, premiering Thursday, March 22nd at 10:30 p.m. PT/ET, takes 30-minute looks at stories culled from all over the country. Glass and a small team of radio producers and filmmakers spent six months on the road: traveling to Iowa pig farms, following a first-time filmmaker in California, photographing a raucous night at an Illinois hot dog stand. The result is true stories that are dramatic, emotional, and often funny.

The case held the attention of the media for years after the incident in 1996. But why has all of the media rushed back to resolve the story now?

Is it our societal need to finish a cultural narrative? Or, is it our unwillingness to pay attention to the issues that are currently playing out in our culture. Instead of obsessing over a ten-year-old case, what are we doing to make people safer, from Boulder to Baghdad? Couldn't we put more energy into saving lives?

June 28, 2006

Thanks to Bryan Chiao of RM 116 for notifing me that the Wall Street Journal wrote an article about the Storycorps versus Jetblue story that we both posted about here and here.

Here's an expert:

While the notion of owning the idea of storytelling might seem far-fetched, StoryCorps worried the public might confuse its project with JetBlue's Story Booth effort, due to the similarity of the name and concept. Both story tours visited Washington at the same time in mid-May, it says.

Last month, Sound Portraits accused JetBlue of "an overt, willful and substantial misappropriation of the trademark rights and goodwill" that StoryCorps "has spent years to generate and maintain." It asked JetBlue to "cease and desist" using the name Story Booth.

"We are just hoping that it stops and that they change their name before it ruins our project," says Dave Isay, founder and executive director of Sound Portraits.

June 08, 2006

In this disruptive age, the power of stories is becoming recognized as an important tool. It’s a move from cold hard facts to warm and fluid narratives. People crave a human connection with the companies whose products they buy. A cornerstone of good branding is good storytelling – but it’s a two-way street. Companies must learn to go beyond telling their own stories to listening to and understanding their customer’s stories.

By being more human and relying on storytelling and narrative strategic thinking, companies have the opportunity to be more relevant to other members of their community. Marketing strategy must be framed as a fluid, organic narrative instead of a static, immovable framework. It’s the tree versus the pyramid. Telling and listening to human stories not only provides a context to people’s lives, but also engages the imagination and interjects magic.

Founders of exceptional companies are seldom focused on their “brand” when they start their business. Instead, they focus on stories that eventually change the world, by using bottom-up strategy to see beyond the horizon.

The reality is that in the start-up phase you inherently rely on your customers, suppliers, and employees to help develop your strategy. Established companies often forget this, and try to distance themselves from their turbulent, risky beginnings. But companies would do well to rediscover their roots and revisit their own creative history.

June 07, 2006

I was talking to a client recently about his company’s access to customer information. He said that the company has spent the last decade developing enormous databases of information about their customers: they know precisely what is purchased, when, and where. But even with all of this information, the client’s company was dismayed to realize they still didn’t understand why their customers behave the way they do.

All of the quantifiable data in the world won’t help you understand a person’s underlying reasons. It will not give you the cause, only the effect. Not only does the very act of asking yourself why force you to make leaps of faith and use your intuition, it also makes you more human, giving you the ability to connect to your customers on a deeper emotional level.